Lucius Junius Brutus Camillus

“ Nor indeed have men of the greatest wisdom thought it beneath them to attend to the warnings of important dreams, if at any time any such appeared to have reference to the interests of the republic. Moreover, even in our own time, Lucius Junius, who was consul, as colleague of Publius Rutulius, was ordered by a vote of the senate to erect a temple to Juno Sospita, in compliance with a dream seen by Caecilia, the daughter of Balearicus. ”

“ OCTAVIUS. Let us do so, for we are at the stake,
And bay'd about with many enemies;
And some that smile have in their hearts, I fear,
Millions of mischiefs. Exeunt.
SCENE II. Camp near Sardis. Before Brutus' tent. Drum. Enter Brutus, Lucilius, Lucius, and Soldiers; Titinius and
Pindarus meet them.
BRUTUS. Stand, ho!
LUCILIUS. Give the word, ho, and stand.
BRUTUS. What now, Lucilius, is Cassius near? ”

“ As one man they charged, and as one man they pierced through the foe. The men of Brittany swept down on the Romans, who were pursuing their comrades, and trampling them under in thousands. They put them speedily to the rightabout, and rode over many in their turn. Ah!, for the griding of their swords, and, ah!, for the captives who were taken. The company hurtled on, till they drew to the golden eagle which was the gonfalon of the emperor. Lucius, himself, was very near his pennon, and with him the flower of his meinie, the gentle men and gallant knights of Rome. ”

“ Insomuch that it struck not only into the parents, but the rest of the citizens that saw what was done, such admiration and love of Camillus's justice, that, immediately meeting in assembly, they sent ambassadors to him, to resign whatever they had to his disposal. Camillus sent them to Rome, where, being brought into the senate, they spoke to this purpose: that the Romans, preferring justice before victory, had taught them rather to embrace submission than liberty; they did not so much confess themselves to be inferior in strength, as they must acknowledge them to be superior in virtue. ”

“ But as Apollo declared that he should be driven from his domain only when a dog should use human speech, he was inspired with confident hope, thinking that the oracle could never be fulfilled.
Now Lucius Junius was a son of Tarquin's sister; his father and brother Tarquin had killed. So he, fearing now for his own person, feigned stupidity, especially when he is of a distinguished family, becomes an object of suspicion to tyrants. And when once he had set out on this course, he acted his part with the greatest precision, and for that reason was also called Brutus ”

“ We'll along ourselves and meet them at Philippi.
BRUTUS. The deep of night is crept upon our talk,
And nature must obey necessity,
Which we will niggard with a little rest.
There is no more to say?
CASSIUS. No more. Good night.
Early tomorrow will we rise and hence.
BRUTUS. Lucius!
Re-enter Lucius.
My gown. Exit Lucius.
Farewell, good Messala;
Good night, Titinius; noble, noble Cassius,
Good night and good repose.
CASSIUS. O my dear brother!
This was an ill beginning of the night.
Never come such division 'tween our souls!
Let it not, Brutus.
BRUTUS. Everything is well. ”

“ When, therefore, his eldest son had offered violence to Lucretia, daughter of Tricipitinus and wife of Collatinus, and this chaste and noble lady had stabbed herself to death on account of the injury she could not survive—then a man eminent for his genius and virtue, Lucius Brutus, dashed from his fellow-citizens this unjust yoke of odious servitude; and though he was but a private man, he sustained the government of the entire Commonwealth, and was the first that taught the people in this State that no one was a private man when the preservation of our liberties was concerned. ”

“ With suchlike words he stirred up the people to great wrath, so that they passed a decree that there should be no more kings in Rome, and that Lucius Tarquin with his wife and his children should be banished. After this Brutus made haste to the camp and stirred up the army against the King. ”

“ I should have come to say farewell, but at the time I was prostrated by a touch of Ephesian fever. Not serious, but just enough, as Lucius would say, to make me haul on shore.'
'Yes, those beautiful savages have again rebelled against the Roman State, and the Emperor summoned Lucius with his fleet to the mouth of the Tiber to ship reinforcements for those distant parts. ”

“ THE STATUE OF THE GODDESS When Veii had fallen into his hands, Camillus allowed not only the soldiers, but the citizens of Rome to plunder the city, for he had agreed with the Senate that all the people should share in the spoil. ”

“ Son and slave were almost the same word with the Romans; and your genuine old Roman made little ado about cutting off the head of one of his boys, perhaps for doing something of a praiseworthy nature. Old Junius Brutus was doubly favored by Fortune, for he was enabled to kill two of his sons in the name of Patriotism, and thereby to gain a reputation for virtue that endures to this day,—though, after all, he was but the first of the brutes. The Romans kept up the paternal rule for many ages, and theoretically it long survived the Republic. ”

“ These things performed, Camillus, leaving his son Lucius in the camp to guard the prisoners and secure the booty, passed into the enemy's country, where, having taken the city of the Aequians and reduced the Volscians to obedience, he then immediately led his army to Sutrium, not having heard what had befallen the Sutrians, but making haste to assist them, as if they were still in danger and besieged by the Tuscans. They, however, had already surrendered their city to their enemies, and destitute of all things, with nothing left but their clothes, and bewailing their misfortune. ”

“ Men built wherever they could find a clear spot. Stones and roofing-material were brought from Veii, and one city was dismantled that another might be restored. Stones and timber were supplied to any man from the public lands. The city rapidly rose again. But it was an irregular city; the streets ran anywhere; no effort was made at rule or system in the making of the new Rome.
As for Camillus, he came to be honored as the second founder of Rome. While the Romans were at work on their new homes they were harassed by their foes, and he was kept busy with the army in the field. ”

“ L. Junius Brutus, consul B.C. 509, was a Patrician, and his race was extinct in his two sons (Liv. ii. 1-4; Drumann, Junii, p. 1; Dion Cassius, xliv. 12; Dionys. Hal. Antiq. Rom. v. 18) .
[497] Servilia, the wife of M. Junius Brutus, the father of this Brutus, was the daughter of Livia, who was the sister of M. Livius Drusus, tribunus plebis B.C. 91. Livia married for her first husband M. Cato, by whom she had M. Cato Uticensis; for her second husband she had Q. Servilius Cæpio, by whom she became the mother of Servilia. ”

“ Meanwhile, the Roman soldiers who had fled from Allia and taken refuge in Veii, began to be ashamed of themselves. Surely they ought to go to the help of their comrades who were so manfully holding the Capitol. If they had but a leader they would go.
Then all at once they remembered Camillus, who was still in exile. They would ask him to come back and lead them as of old to victory.
So they sent to beg Camillus to come to Veii and take command of the soldiers. But Camillus refused to come unless the Senate recalled him and asked him to deliver Rome. ”

“ It was Fortune herself who led the Gauls after they left the City to Ardea, that they might have some experience of Roman courage. Camillus was living there as an exile, grieving more over his country's fortunes than his own, eating his heart out in reproaches to gods and men, asking in indignant wonder where the men were with whom he had taken Veii and Falerii; men whose valour in all their wars was greater even than their success. ”

“ Camillus immediately offered the magistrates to undertake their defense; and getting together all the men who could bear arms, he led them out, fell upon the Gauls as they all lay asleep and unguarded in the dead of night, made a great slaughter of them, and saved Ardea. All this was heard by the many Romans who had been living dispersed since the rout of Allia; and they began to recover heart and spirit, and to think that if Camillus would be their leader, they might yet do something to redeem the honor of Rome, and save their friends in the Capitol. ”

“ Posthumus waited in silence to hear the welcome sentence of his own death; and he resolved not to disclose to the king that he had saved his life in the battle, lest that should move Cymbeline to pardon him.
Lucius, the Roman general who had taken Imogen under his protection as his page, was the first (as has been before said) who spoke to the king. He was a man of high courage and noble dignity, and this was his speech to the king:—
"I hear you take no ransom for your prisoners, but doom them all to death: I am a Roman, and with a Roman heart will suffer death. ”

“ O thou in whom that virtue, which of yore
Took flight from earth, now finds its only home,
Outcast to all besides, but safe with thee:
Vouchsafe thy counsel to my wavering soul
And make my weakness strength. While Caesar some,
Pompeius others, follow in the fight,
Cato is Brutus' guide. Art thou for peace,
Holding thy footsteps in a tottering world
Unshaken? Or wilt thou with the leaders' crimes
And with the people's fury take thy part,
And by thy presence purge the war of guilt?
In impious battles men unsheath the sword;
But each by cause impelled: the household crime ”

“ The Veientines continuing troublesome, Furius Camillus was appointed dictator, when, with an engineering talent rare in those days, he commenced a mine, and overcoming all minor, as well as major, or general difficulties, he forced a way into the city. The King of Veii was offering a sacrifice in the Temple of Juno, just as the Romans had completed their tunnel, and as the soldiers burst like a crop of early champions through the earth, he saw his fate written in bold Roman characters. Everything was given to the conquerors, and it is said that the statue of Juno, followed of its own accord ”

“ During a four years’ war against the Parthians, Lucius held command of the Roman army: but, a drunkard and a gamester, his sole part in the war was to reap the glory of the victories won by his generals. In his youth, he is described as well made in person; frank, simple, and gentle of disposition.
[A colossal Bust of him will be found described under Nos. 331 and 333, in the Handbook to the Roman Court and Nave. It was found in the same place as the colossal Marcus Aurelius.]
51. Ælius Verus. Adopted Emperor.
[Born (uncertain) . Died at Rome, A.D. 138.] ”

“ But their numbers were soon thinned by disease, for they had entered Rome in the most unhealthy time of the year, when fevers have always prevailed. The failure of provisions obliged [Pg 47] them to ravage the neighboring countries, the people of which began to combine for defense against the marauders. Meantime the scattered Romans took courage. They collected at Veii, and here resolved to recall Camillus from banishment, and appoint him Dictator. In order to obtain the consent of the Senate, a daring youth, named Pontius Cominius, offered to swim across the Tiber and climb the Capitol. ”

“ What he would do in Rome, were it not for the protection of Jupiter, may be seen from the miseries which his brother has inflicted on those poor men of Parma—that Lucius, whom all men hate, and the gods too would hate, if they hated as they ought. ”

“ BRUTUS.
Farewell, good Strato.—Caesar, now be still:
I kill’d not thee with half so good a will.
[He runs on his sword, and dies.]
Alarum. Retreat. Enter Antony, Octavius, Messala, Lucilius and the Army.
OCTAVIUS.
What man is that?
MESSALA.
My master’s man. Strato, where is thy master?
STRATO.
Free from the bondage you are in, Messala.
The conquerors can but make a fire of him;
For Brutus only overcame himself,
And no man else hath honour by his death.
LUCILIUS.
So Brutus should be found. I thank thee, Brutus,
That thou hast prov’d Lucilius’ saying true. ”

“ Of Lucius, son to old Andronicus;
Who threats, in course of this revenge, to do
As much as ever Coriolanus did.
SATURNINUS.
Is warlike Lucius general of the Goths?
These tidings nip me, and I hang the head
As flowers with frost, or grass beat down with storms.
Ay, now begins our sorrows to approach.
’Tis he the common people love so much;
Myself hath often overheard them say,
When I have walked like a private man,
That Lucius’ banishment was wrongfully,
And they have wished that Lucius were their emperor.
TAMORA.
Why should you fear? Is not your city strong? ”

“ Lucius our Emperor; for well I know
The common voice do cry it shall be so.
ALL. Lucius, all hail, Rome's royal Emperor!
MARCUS. Go, go into old Titus' sorrowful house,
And hither hale that misbelieving Moor
To be adjudg'd some direful slaught'ring death,
As punishment for his most wicked life. Exeunt some
attendants. LUCIUS, MARCUS, and the others descend
ALL. Lucius, all hail, Rome's gracious governor!
LUCIUS. Thanks, gentle Romans! May I govern so
To heal Rome's harms and wipe away her woe!
But, gentle people, give me aim awhile,
For nature puts me to a heavy task. ”

“ Lucius crouched down near the temple door at the side of the huge white building with its many columns, after he had heard the knock Alyrus gave at the small portal, and had heard the door clang behind the porter. No good could come from that temple and its priests. Even though they bowed before the statue of the god and burned incense, the Romans did not trust the priests. They regarded them as intriguers, trying to get their hands on everything, ready to worm out secrets for their own profit and obtain private and political power whenever possible.
The great black cloud enveloped Rome. ”